Welcome to Twitter Oprah
Posted by Lisa Cruz on Fri, Apr 17, 2009 @ 04:11 PM
Dear Oprah,
I want to welcome you to the twitterverse! I know social media, and especially twitter can be a bit overwhelming so I thought I would share with you a few things I have learned along the way.
• Fellow tweeps will appreciate tweets that come directly from you. I understand you are extremely busy and may require a few others to help you out but … the more we can hear your voice, the better.
• While twitter is a great way to express yourself, make sure you do a lot of listening.
• Engage with your followers and try not to talk too much at us.
• Have a little fun with your bio.
• Follow a variety of people. You might be surprised at what you find.
• Insert humor into your tweets.
• Demonstrate your personality through your voice.
• Re-tweet as often as you can. There are a lot of great things people tweet on twitter and a re-tweet from you would help get the word out.
• Remember, not everyone will agree with the things you say but it’s ok.
• Twitter is another communications channel for you to grow your brand (even more!). Make sure you have a Plan B if communications spiral out of control.
And, as a quick reference guide, here is some Twitter lingo to get you through:
tweeps – people on Twitter who tweet
tweet – what you say on Twitter
fail whale - when Twitter is overloaded, you will see this screen depicting a whale
tweet up – when tweeps decide to have an in-person get together (you could probably have the largest one ever!)
twitterific – things that are just terrific
retweet or RT – when you like someone’s tweet, re-tweet it and send it on to your followers. Please remember to keep your tweets short so we have enough space to copy them, put in RT and @name
@name - which brings up another point… when you RT, you have to give credit where credit is due. This means putting the @name in your tweet. For example: RT @lisaredshoespr insert rest of content here.
Tinyurl – convert long-winded urls into a succinct url. This makes it easier to post your tweets. Visit www.tinyurl.com
hashtags - when you want a conversation to be tracked you can use the # with a corresponding word for the conversation. For example, #oprahontwitter
twittersearch – you can search conversations and tweeps on this site, as well as trending conversations (see above description for hashtags. I also noticed, of course, you are already a trend!)
DM – This stands for direct message. You can DM a person, which means it’s a private conversation. Remember, though, you must be followed by the other person to send them a DM.
twitterers – I think you’ve heard about this enough and I don’t need to go any further.
#followfriday – This could be a huge day of the week for you. People like to recommend other people to follow. Oh my gosh. I see another opportunity for you, similar to your book club recommendations. Maybe an #oprahfollowsfriday !!!
Again, welcome to the twitterverse! Just DM me when you are ready to have a tweet-up and then I can RT it.
Sincerely,
@LisaRedShoesPR